STATE 5A GIRLS BASKETBALL: Late, but still a great start for Bowman, T-Wolves

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

NAMPA — You can excuse Lake City junior Allie Bowman for her late start to the season this year.

“I just wanted to focus on volleyball and that,” said Bowman, a libero for the T-Wolves in the fall. “I’m a junior, so I wanted to spend time with my family and focus on that.”

Don’t worry, she’s balling now.

Bowman scored all eight of Lake City's points in the first quarter, and finished with 10 points for the top-seeded Timberwolves in a 44-39 win over the eighth-seeded Rocky Mountain Grizzlies of Meridian in the opening round of the state 5A tournament on Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center.

“My teammates convinced me to play,” Bowman said of basketball. “And I’ve just had a ball this year. Not playing right away has really fired me up. I feel like I’m hitting my peak now.”

Bowman scored 15 points in the Timberwolves' 63-57 win at Coeur d’Alene in the Region 1 title game on Feb. 8 to advance to state.

“She’s a really gifted and natural athlete,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “The more the season has gone on, the more we thought she was going to turn a corner. She makes good decisions and is such a competitor. Defensively, she can change the game for us. She has the ability to get to any spot she wants on the floor. She’s figuring out who she is on the court and what she can do.”

Lake City (21-3) faces No. 5 seed Boise (20-3) in the semifinals tonight at 4 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center. Boise defeated No. 4 Post Falls 52-38 on Thursday.

Sophomore Sophia Zufelt scored eight points, six in the fourth quarter, for Lake City, which stretched the lead to 36-31 with 5:21 remaining.

“We talked last night about the first time the Golden State Warriors went to the NBA finals in 2014, the MVP was someone off the bench,” Anderson said. “They called it strength in numbers and anybody on any given night. We just told everyone to stay within themselves and do their job, and thought Kursten (McKellips) and Sophia did a great job for us. It was good to see Kursten playing a lot better and to see Sophia shoot the ball well.”

Zufelt’s free throws with 42.3 seconds remaining iced the game.

“The difference between a good team and a great team is that they find a way to win when it’s not going great,” Anderson said. “Kudos to them for figuring out ways to win, even though we didn’t shoot great.”

Senior Kendall Pickford had three points and four assists, sophomore Avery Waddington six points and three assists for Lake City.

“We knew more about who their shooters were, and were flying at them on defense,” Rocky Mountain coach B.J. Humphreys said. “We were trying to get them off the line. We knew that the threats were 0 (Kendall Pickford) and 10 (Avery Waddington), so we wanted to get them off the line instead of being able to stand and shoot. But we played our base man-to-man defense.”

Lake City finished 3 of 13 from 3-point range.

Rocky Mountain outrebounded Lake City 41-24, but shot just 14 of 48 from the field, including 2 of 20 from deep.

“It was really big for us to move on and get to the championship game,” Zufelt said. “They ranked us not to win, so we’re trying to prove everyone wrong."

Rocky Mountain 8 7 10 14 — 39

Lake City 8 11 10 15 — 44

ROCKY MOUNTAIN — Lee 0, Archibald 5, Tannaci 2, Magnuson 6, Osterhout 9, Christie 0, Mumford 0, Dabell 7, Allen 0, Reed 10. Totals 14-48 9-14 39.

LAKE CITY — Ke. Pickford 3, Ka. Pickford 7, Bowman 10, Zufelt 8, Waddington 6, McKellips 4, Holzer 0, Reynolds 6. Totals 14-37 13-20 44.